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Ask the Warhammer Online Team 246

Posted by Zonk from the damn-skaven dept.
In my recap of 2006's GenCon event, I was somewhat unkind to Warhammer Online. They are far better people than I am, thankfully, and the folks from Mythic Entertainment are extending a hand to the members of the Slashdot community. We have the chance to ask them any questions we'd like about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. We'll look through your questions, and pass on the best to the development team at Mythic. We've gotten assurances that responses will be attributed, too, so you'll know who is answering what. Whether you're a Massive game fan or an old-school wargamer Warhammer Online has to have something to interest you, so ask away. One question per post, please, and we'll post the answers as soon as we get them.
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Ask the Warhammer Online Team More

Ask the Warhammer Online Team

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  • uhm... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by revery ( 456516 )
    uhm... What's Warhammer?

    --
    This is a joke. I am joking. You have been joked with.

  • PvP End-Game (Score:2, Interesting)

    by milspec74 ( 472052 )
    Will the end-game of WAR really, truly be PvP / RvR? WoW was just a PvP tease on top of a quest and loot-oriented PvE game, and it lost the hardcore PvP crowd. Will WAR abandon DAoC's PvP/RvR roots just to appeal to the masses of carebears out there?

    • Re:PvP End-Game (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Gerad ( 86818 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:20PM (#16472197)
      As a followup question, how do you plan on balancing the endgame experience of casual players vs. the endgame experience of hardcores?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by aetherworld ( 970863 )
        I'd like to know that too. Also, I'd like to know how the PvP system will really work. I guess, sadly, that we won't get something like the UO PvP (the original one, not after they added new Facets) but will it be balanced better than WoW. Especially, will i be able to only casually PvP and still be able to win against the hardcore farmers? So, it boils down to: Is SKILL the key (like it should be) or is it just another sad item farming crap?!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Jerry Rivers ( 881171 )
      "...and it lost the hardcore PvP crowd."

      And it has become the most popular MMORPG of all time. I guess there's a lesson to be learned from their experience.
      • That dumbing things down and making them predictable and unchallenging makes money? This goes for all of the entertainment industry, not just games.
        • No, an elegant, polished product with good content and broad appeal will be profitable.

          The secret is not about dumbing it down, though, you're right in that a "dumbed down" game will end up with more users than a game geared toward hardcore tastes.

          Quality products always do well, unless their focus is hopelessly narrow. The lesson to be learned from WoW is not "OMG! Copy their success!" because that's not going to work. The lesson to be learned is, if you do a good job, you produce a slick world with a good

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by jbrader ( 697703 )
      Would anyone out there be willing to translate this guys dorkspeak into real words?

      • Re:PvP End-Game (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Homr Zodyssey ( 905161 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @03:09PM (#16474305) Journal
        Translation: "I liked Dark Age of Camelot better than World of Warcraft because it let me be a dick to other people. Will World of Warcraft give me the chance to be a dick? Or will it be a game for pansies -- which is what I think World of Warcraft is." This translation does not reflect the views of Homr Zodyssey or Zodyssey Publications, Inc.
      • A lot of people feel that WoW's pvp is wimpy, because (basically) you can't steal anythign from 'em once you kill 'em, and they don't take any permanent harm (e.g experience loss or gold loss or anything), and also you can't run amok in the noob zones, even on pvp servers. Lot of old school games pretty much allowed you to loot everything a person might have, or kill 'em until they dropped a level or steal all their money, etc, etc, etc.

        In some ways I agree...WoW pvp, especially the sanctioned battleground

  • What makes you special? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Gerad ( 86818 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:18PM (#16472137)
    What's unique about Warhammer Online, other than the universe that its set in? This could be anything, really: design philosophy, new innovations in gameplay, new technical acomplishments.

    Put slightly more bluntly, tell me why I should chose Warhammer Online over World of Warcraft.
    • Your characters Grow! Have you never played an MMORPG and wished that as you level up your characters get bigger physically? Plus it's Warhammer. That has a strong backstory they have developed over the years. Assuming that this game sticks to that, it should have a good storyline to play along if you so desire.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by L7_ ( 645377 )
        A storyline with no world interaction and the inability for players to affect it is just as bad as a generic world with nothing happening. You might as well watch TV.

        How is Warhammer going to implement Player versus World? Can players physically affect the environment of other players, or will the world (npcs/cities/houses/resources) all be static? Truely 'next generation' needs to have some way to dynamically alter the environment.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Shihar ( 153932 )
        Your characters Grow! Have you never played an MMORPG and wished that as you level up your characters get bigger physically?

        Wow!!!111!! Your avatar changes? OMFG, it is like a whole new game!!!!!1!!!

        Really, if the only thing they have to offer is that your character gets bigger and the setting, I think I'll pass. Those are both purely cosmetic changes. A grindfest with comestic changes is still a grindfest. And for the love of god, screw the story. Every single MMORPG since UO has sworn up and down tha

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by OverlordQ ( 264228 )
      Because Massive most likely wont completely fuck over existing lore just to appease a small percentage of whining subscribers. (ie: WoW)

      • Can you elaborate on that?

        I've looked at the maps/stories from Warcraft I, II, and III, and they don't seem to stay within canon very well between versions. What did Bliz do with WoW that was so bad?
        • It's been noted that new additions in BC contradict what's been established so far. When asked about this, all Blizzard says is "Oh well"

    • Fantasy done to death (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Skevin ( 16048 ) * on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:42PM (#16473821) Journal
      > What's unique about Warhammer Online

      I was wondering this myself. There are already more fantasy MMORPGs than I can shake a Dextrous Fiery Stick of Warding +8 at. I know, the polls show that Fantasy seems to have more uptake than any other genre of MMORPG, but I really think it's more the marketing and gameplay rather than the actual genre itself. Perhaps the statistics are skewed because there are way more Fantasy MMORPGs than other genres and we simply ignore the ones that have already failed.

      For novelty, why not a Warhammer 40K MMORPG? (That's the Sci-Fi version of Warhammer, for those of you who didn't know.) Sure, you'd still have battles planetside (I can't think of a MMORPG where fighting *doesn't* occur on the ground), but I have long envisioned space battles between capital ships/space hulks/craftworlds that may as well be cities (thriving trade, virtual real estate, etc), where entire decks can disappear without a moment's notice in a well-placed shot of heavy weapons fire. I envision subscribers also being able to play the role of individual pilots who are able to customize their fighter craft in accordance to their funds (or military rank). If Twitch Combat isn't your thing, that would be fine - you need not lead that kind of life if you don't want to.
      I'd see a 40K MMORPG offering both kinds of combat: one where you rely on skills defined in raw numbers which you can develop through tradtional means (ground combat), and one which relies almost solely on your real-life reaction time (a la Wing Commander).

      Solomon Chang
      • To add to the 40k side of things, warhammer discussion groups quickly come up with the idea of Necromunda as a MMORPG. Necromunda is a small-scale game set in the primary hive of the manufacturing planet, Necromunda [wikipedia.org]. You gang starts out weak and small in the underhive, fights for territory and eventually is either destroyed, crippled or ascends the hive until they get attention from the law and bigger fights. I do not think there is anything else in the 40k universe that would translate to the perfect MMORP

    • Re:What makes you special? (Score:4, Informative)

      by _KiTA_ ( 241027 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @03:20PM (#16474481) Homepage
      Put slightly more bluntly, tell me why I should chose Warhammer Online over World of Warcraft.


      Why go for the cheap knockoff (WoW) when you can go directly to the game that they got their inspiration from?

      You know how Orcs are green and go Waaaagh? You wouldn't, except that Warhammer did them that way decades before Warcraft. The only thing they're missing is a british soccer fan accent.

      You know how Terran Marines have Power Armor that looks like platemail bellbottoms? Yeah, Space Marines from 40k first.

      Zerg? Much scarier when they were called the Tyranids. Protoss? Wake me when they start calling theselves the Eldar -- and Dark Eldar -- again.

      Pretty much everything in Warcraft/Starcraft up to Warcraft 3 (where it diverged) was inspired heavily from the original Warhammer/Warhammer 40k universes.

      I know this is a bit of a harsh response, but for Warhammer fans this is a bit of a sore spot. 6 Mouths, and all that.

      • Re:What makes you special? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Shihar ( 153932 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @05:51PM (#16476675)
        Why go for the cheap knockoff (WoW) when you can go directly to the game that they got their inspiration from?

        So are you saying that Warhammer will offer a Genuine Treadmill(TM) instead of just a normal Treadmill?

        Don't get me wrong, I like the Warhammer setting as much as anyone, but that doesn't change the fact that another shitty MMORPG with a different setting is still just a shitty MMORPG with a different setting.

        I don't know about anyone else, but back in the days of Doom when computer games started to really become multiplayer I had dreams of logging into a massive online world one day. If me of the future had gone back in time and showed me of the Doom era the crap that they were passing off as MMORPGs in the future, people would be dead. I would have hunted down the first asshat that thought that killing 10^12 monsters for exp and l00t so that you can kill some more monsters was "massive multiplayer online gameplay". In hunting down that first idiot, I would hope to prevent the current crop of shit for game play MMORPGs out there.

        The MMORPGs out there today are absolute crap. They are glorified mouse experiments where the stupid mouse keeps pressing a lever for a shot of dopamine until it forgets to eat and dies of starvation. If the best vision of a massive online world is an online world where the gameplay consists of mindlessly killing tens of thousands of NPCs to kill more NPCs with the occasional sub-game play distraction, the human race needs to be shot in the face.

        Personally, I don't believe that this levelfest crap gameplay that we see today is the pinnacle of game design. So, my question is this:

        Is Warhammer going to offer up some new game play that would not send me of 1993 into a homicidal rage seeking to prevent the creation of the first crappy MMORPGs, or is Warhammer going to offer up gameplay that transcends the brain damage causing "killing NPCs 4 l00t and 3xp" game play?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *

      tell me why I should chose Warhammer Online over World of Warcraft

      ...or Guild Wars, which doesn't have an annoying monthly fee. AFAIC, there are only two MMORPG's out there worth their salt right now: WoW (if you absolutely must have a persistent world and are willing to pay for it) and Guild Wars (if you don't mind more instanced content to forgo the fee).

      Since Warhammer is apparently in the "monthly fee" category, they are obligated, whether they like it or not, to tell people why they should choose t

  • Why Is It For Me? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:19PM (#16472185) Journal
    On a site like Slashdot, a lot of us are caught up in online RPG games and console wars. I read the overview of your game on your site but--like a lot of people--I'm not sold. What's the number one reason I should be interested in Warhammer Online? What do you feel sets it above the online successes out there and the average run of the mill games? It appears to have a lot of 'war' involved in it but is there any social aspects to your online game? Is there diplomacy in Warhammer?

  • Casual or Hardcore Gaming? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:23PM (#16472267) Journal
    Will your game cater to the casual gamer (1-2 hours a week) or will it cater only to serious gamers (40 hours a week/second job)? How do you balance a game such that both players can play and feel the game is fair and satisfying?

  • Player base (Score:5, Interesting)

    by imbaczek ( 690596 ) <(mf.atzcop) (ta) (kezcabmi)> on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:25PM (#16472303) Journal
    Do you want to chew into WoW's player base or are you targeting players from other games, most notably other Warhammer titles? If you're targeting WoW, what do you do you have to offer and do you think they'll really jump ship? And if you do convince players, how do you intend to keep them playing WH other than eternal grind for herbs or whatever?
  • It's been discussed on Slashdot before, but what's your take on procedural graphics [acm.org] (PDF)? Did you use any strategy to thin the client application while managing the load on the CPU? Is this common in online game design where a client is involved?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 2megs ( 8751 )
      Speaking ONLY as a guy who reads graphics papers, the paper you linked proposes and requires hardware features that aren't presently available to consumers. Barring a surprise announcement from ATI or Nvidia, I personally don't expect that to change by the game's launch window.

  • User introduced art? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:27PM (#16472339) Homepage Journal
    One of the most entertaining aspects of WH (IMO) next to strategy, planning, and decimating our enemies is the craft and care of the minitures. And one of the enjoyable parts of playing MMOs is the mod community, wether sanctioned or not. With DAoC there was a definate progression between Mythic and the Mod community. What started out as a non-existant link slowly became a colaboration between Mythic and the modders. Mythic introduced a tool (or information about the tool) to allow modders to impliment custom GUI solutions. An idea that has since been used widely in the MMO field.

    Are there currently any plans to have a simlar system that would allow for the introduction of player contributed art to the game? Banners, skins, asorted textures, and the like? Such a system would allow players to not only take pride in their victories, but also in their craftsmanship.

    -Rick

  • EA asshatery (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:28PM (#16472381)
    How does it feel to have EA suck the soul out of your studio and make you push your product unfinished with core feature removed since they are too 'risky' and/or will affect ESRB rating?

  • Squeak! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lispy ( 136512 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:33PM (#16472481) Homepage
    Will it feature Skaven???
    A playable race even?? Pretty please...
  • When (not "will") we be able to play as one of the "bad guys" like a skaven or a chaos warrior?
  • How do you plan to handle magic items and named characters ingame? Many of the most popular items belong to NPC characters (like Gotrek's axe for example) and as such cannot be found without breaking the canon timeline.

  • Platforms (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF ( 813746 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:43PM (#16472687)

    So to compete with World of Warcraft you'll be supporting multiple platforms at launch right? Or is this just another Windows only game that will get a possibly half-assed port if the Windows version is profitable?

  • How will the game handle redesigns in the model lines. With Games workshop releasing an entire product line redesign over 2-3 months, will the game keep up with them or keep it's "classic" feel? I assume adding new weapons and armour for a player wouldn't be too difficult, but will uniforms and weapons be updated on the NPC for example.
  • How much of a grind is there in Warhammer online? I have no interest in (%#*&(@%# grinding, but have a great deal of interest in the potentials of MMOs. Does your game do anything to get rid of the grind and if so, how?
  • Since it is Slashdot asking the questions I feel this must be asked (also I'm an Ubuntu user).

    Will there be a Linux client or do us Linux users have to struggle with WINE instead?
  • How do you plan to avoid being a World of Warcraft clone in the current MMORPG flurry of knock offs?
    • World of Warcraft was an Everquest clone, doesn't seem to have done it any harm. People don't want new, scary things, they like what they've had before, but with nicer graphics.

  • What's in for the crafters? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:52PM (#16472875)
    I'm a crafter at heart, in fact, I play MMORPGs to craft gear. So what do we loonies get? How do you want to avoid the two pitfalls "Making it so easy that everyone has some sort of crafter, and market prices plummet for everything but the bits that only the primary top guild builders have prints for (see WoW)" and "Making it so hard that you'd rather go with the once-in-a-lifetime-drop 'cause getting it is faster than finding a crafter who can build you something similar (see DAoC)"? Can I sustain myself crafting, or is it at best a hobby for people who have too much money already? Will crafted gear be, economically, be at least on par with drop-only gear?

    Oh, only one question. Ok: Is being a crafter a choice that can keep you entertained and sustained by itself?
  • Will it run on linux? How about my solaris box? I mean, of course your largest market is the windows users, but if a quality MMO was around with good naitive linux/mac/whatever ports, you'd have a clear advantage over the other competitors... ok, well competitor....
  • Will I be able to wander on foot for a month and brave the chaos wastes and end up in naggaroth surrounded by dark eleves? Or will there be a big black impassable wall at the edge of the "old world"?

  • How customizable is the interface? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lord_Frederick ( 642312 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @01:58PM (#16473043)
    One of the best features of WoW is the way you can customize your entire interface and create custom modifications. Will players have the same ability to tweak the interface of Warhammer Online?

  • Mythic made a wonderful game with the original incarnation of DAoC but watered it down and killed it by trying to capitalize on the everquest model of raid for loot. WoW has done the same thing but to an even greater degree. Both EQ and WoW focus on ease of development and limiting player choices. How will Mythic battle this in Warhammer and keep it slimmed down to the game that people want to play?

    Players need choices that mean something. The ability to choose to do or not do raids is not a choice whe

  • Mac/Linux versions (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BMonger ( 68213 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:10PM (#16473255)
    Has any thought been given to Mac OS X and Linux versions?

  • Removing the grind (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bugmaster ( 227959 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:23PM (#16473541) Homepage
    What are you going to do in order to prevent the repetitive grind that most MMOs are [in]famous for ? How many quests in your game follow ye olde template of "kill 20 goblins and bring me their noses... but a goblin only has a 30% chance to drop a nose" ?

    At higher levels, will your game require a massive investment of time into raiding the same dungeon over and over, in order to stay competitive with other players ?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ameoba ( 173803 )
      If you think about it, they're being pretty generous giving goblins a 30% chance to drop a nose. While I've never met a goblin, I'll have to assume their noses are as well attached as humans'. In nearly 30 years, other than the times as a small child that my father stole my nose, I have never detached my nose, let alone dropped it, nor has anyone else I know.

  • Questions from an Ex-Workshoper (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RembrandtX ( 240864 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:24PM (#16473549) Homepage Journal
    As a former workshop employee, both domestic and abroad, Here are a few Questions :P

    1) How difficult do you find it to work with the studio ? Aside from the time differences, Having spent a little time there, I know how possesive the studio is of their IP, and overall mythos. In the past they [I almost said we] have been very difficult to work with from the vantage of software companies in this regard. [Even going so far as to turn down a brand new software company in the early 90's when they pitched a Humans vs Orcs fantasy game .. Blizzard was the company btw, who managed to release the software anyways to some moderate success :)] I know that recent mindsets on the board have stopped seeing video games as 'the enemy' and started seeing them as effective marketing tools to branch boys into 'the hobby', do you find this to be reflected through out the company as well ?

    2) What kind of visuals do you work with ? Again, the paper files in the old Notts. studio were EXTENSIVE, I know that mythic has their internal art department. [A place I once applied to after being encouraged by friends who work there, oddly enough , I would have been perfect on this project, but thats neither here nor there ;P] Do your artists have some free reign ? Do you get to use source material from the GW design studio ? How tight are they on your artistic licence, and is it frustrating to work under those constraints ?

    3) Has GW taken you folks to play paint-ball in Nottingham forest yet ? :)
    4) Do you like the pub in the new head office ?
    5) Are Jon Stallard and Chris Harbour still Beardy-Ol-Gits ?

  • Item Duping & Griefers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fudgefactor7 ( 581449 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:32PM (#16473675)
    Item duplication is one of the many banes of the on-line RPG, what will you be doing to counter that kind of abuse? And frankly, what will you do to keep griefers in line?

  • My Questions (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chimp_On_Stilts ( 805726 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:36PM (#16473743)
    I ask many of these relative to WoW. This should suprise nobody, as any MMO hoping to compete with WoW should liberally compare itself with - though not necessarily model itself after - WoW.

    1.) PvP:
    - a.WAR seems to have a PvP focus. Is it possible to focus primarily on PvP and earn enough EXP from PvP so that I will not be forced to "grind up" *for* PvP like players are forced to do in WoW?
    - b. In WoW, there are two clear channels of play: PvP and PvE, and PvE must be done to be competative in PvP. What kind of effort will I need to put into PvE to be competative in PvP? I ask this for the players who, like myself, do not want to put anything more than minimal time into PvE because we prefer PvP.
    - c. Will PvP be balanced with items, levels/skills, or player skill in mind? IE: Who would win in a fight, the player with the most skill, the best gear, or the highest levels and in-game skills? Again, with WoW as an example, levels and gear are very clearly more important than actual player skill, which I find extremely damaging toward gameplay. Having to mindlessly acquire in-game stuff (I won't even say earn, because earning implies a skill investment as well as the MMO-standard time investment) to play the part of the game I actually like without constanly losing really, really sucks.
    - d. What will make PvP in your game different from PvP in other MMOs, again, notably WoW. Will you implement Warhammer's gameplay depth (formations, terrain, etc) to WAR?
    - e. How will you address the weaknesses of PvP in today's MMOs. IE: Characters bunnyhopping to avoid enemy meelee and spells, generic "press auto attack and wait" no-player-skill meelee, etc.

    2.) Customization:
    - a. What kind of UI system are you implementing? I've been critical of WoW here, but I must say that their extremely robust UI modding system is simply excellent and one of the best features of the game.
    - b. To many people, part of the appeal of the Warhammer tabletop game is being able to customize your units and create "your" army. Will this , or anything similar, be implemented in WAR? Custom armor color schemes/logos, custom guild banners, etc, all spring to mind as possibilities.

    3.) MMO General:
    - a. What, if any, MMO conventions will you be breaking? Nobody wants to see gimmicks, but there are some ideas that have struck me as being very good. IE: Allowing players to join more than one guild at a time instead of locking them into a single community of players.
    - b. What else do you want us to know about WAR, and why should we play it? I can visit your website for your generic PR pitch, so give us some personal opinions, strenghts and weaknesses of the game, etc, not the usual stuff.

    4.) The Most Important Question to Me:
    - I want your game to actually feel like the cutscenes available on your website. I do not want to watch these visceral and intense CG videos only to find combat in your game is just more of the same that I've grown tired of months ago. Will combat feel like the videos, or will it be sterile MMO combat?

  • Why not a Table Top port? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by randalx ( 659791 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:36PM (#16473747)
    When I first heard of Warhammer Online I had a slight hope that the designers were going to create an online version of the table top game, something akin to what Wizards of the Coast did with Magic The Gathering Online. Judging by the people I've talked to, this game would be of great interest to current and former battlegamers. Instead you've gone the route of many former Warhammer based games, i.e. simply selected the most popular genre and slapped on the Warhammer universe onto it (ex. Dawn of War).

    I'd like to know, besides the Warhammer universe, why should this game appeal to a Warhammer battlegamer. And more importantly, why hasn't a serious online Table Top port been attempted.

    • Re:Why not a Table Top port? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by RembrandtX ( 240864 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:53PM (#16473979) Homepage Journal
      Well, I can answer for the Table Top Port.

      It will never happen. While the Board at GW is more understanding of video games now, they still see them only as a way to get boys interested in a 'real' hobby. That of model wargames.

      They will never, and I say never with conviction, issue a licence to reproduce their table top game on a computer. To the folks running the show, that is just as alien thought as buying a computer to only check e-mail is to a computer programmer.

      They simply don't understand how someone would want to play a video game of their hobby as opposed to actually playing with toy soldiers. The game is only part of the hobby to them [and me .. since I used to be one of them.] and modeling, painting and the tactile-ness of toy soldiers can't easily be reproduced. This tactile-ness is easily 80% of the hobby anyways, as well as the collecting part of it.

      So - you will never see a 'faithful' reproduction of their games, only games that add to the hobby - instead of replacing it.

      10 years ago - you wouldn't even see that :P

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )
        they'll change.

        The tactile experience is a large portion of the experience for current gamers, and those type of people will always buy the table top version. Then you have a much larger group of people that would play the game on the computer that won't want to paint a miniature.
        example:

        So if you have 100 people that play the table top version.
        If you also had a computer game, you would have:
        you have 100 people that play the table top version.
        Plus a bunch of others that will include people being introduced

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by randalx ( 659791 )
        So the target market is slightly different, I agree. But I propose that there is still a relevant market of players that would be attracted to this game.

        I believe there is a segment that is simply less interested in the painting aspect then in the strategy aspects of the game. Alternately, some of that customization interest could be funneled into a creative model modding feature. More importantly, I believe there are lot's of people that have simply dropped the hobby due to time constraints. An onlin
    • Economics - spend $50 on a game that would cost you over $1000 for the same army, payable to the same company?

      What company is going to do that?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by randalx ( 659791 )
        If it's like MTGO, you'd be paying for the virtual models and not the game itself. So you could easily spend $1000 if you so desire.

  • Appearance Changes (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @02:49PM (#16473909) Homepage
    One of the features that sounds the most promising is how your appearance changes as you level to show you being more powerful, aside from any equipment you might have. It is frustrating to invest a large amount of time and reach the top of the ladder to discover you look exactly the same as everybody else at the top, and you all mostly have the same few pieces of uber-gear. It is also frustrating when everybodies spell effects look exactly the same with no way to alter the particles to make your individual castings look unique. What is the extent of this visual distinction? How does that system work exactly? Also, will we be able to distinguish ourselves by our equipment, or will everybody eventually end up with the same few identical uber-weapons that look exactly the same?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • other races (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Faaln ( 1004586 )
    I noticed that the vampire counts, tomb kings, as well as the dark elves are not shown in the trailer at all; does this mean they're not in the game? That they're the 'bad' guys and thus unplayable? Or was there some reason the trailer simply couldn't include them?
    • Speaking of walking about the world, will you be introducing any interesting locations? How about Mordheim? The infinite city would make for a nice massive location, with lots of room for small-group quests.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by RembrandtX ( 240864 )
      Boy those grapes are up really high, I bet they are sour anyways.

      Xbox 360 dvd's only cost pennies to press, but they cost $60.00.
      MP3's are just files, why do they cost $1 ?
      It costs just about as much to make a Honda Accord as it does to make a Series 5 BMW, why can't I get one for the same price ?

      Toy soldiers are priced at what GW thinks they should be priced at. It is, regardless of how much people want it to be not, a luxury item, the cataliac of Table Top Miniatures. And as such, yeah, its expensive, but
  • Are you going to outsource your customer support to a company that has no in-game abilities? Or are you going to have GMs that can actually help players in-game with bugged NPCs, quests, items, and characters?

    Anyone who has played WoW knows their customer support is terrible. Their useless GMs will happily ban players all day for saying "damnit" in a public chat channel, but when your raid boss refuses to spawn because of a bugged event or your account gets keylogger-hacked and all your items disappear, you

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      "...is a shining example of quality in-game customer support with GMs from the community who have power in-game and actually understand/care about the players' problems."

      it's been a long time since I red something that maybe spray my drink all over my monitor.

      haha shining example.. I'll be laughing about that all day.

  • Botting (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pengo ( 28814 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @03:34PM (#16474721) Journal

    I was a HUGE fan of DAoC, played it religiously for almost 4 years. Unfortunately during the major duration of that time I had 2 accounts active to compete in what I considered a very enjoyable PvP experience. What I would consider the biggest problem with DAoC next to game balance was the issues of botting.

    Is botting going to be acceptable in the Warhammer Online world, or is the development team taking steps from a design phase to prevent botting (and creating the requirement to have one) to compete in PvP? Is there 'buffing' classes, or are the buffs spread out more evenly across ALL of the classes to prevent a single botting class. Will crafting/alchemy be used to help remedy the problem (if perceived as such)?

    As a player of DAoC thats the #1 reason I left DaoC to play WoW. I was tired of paying for multiple accounts, and I didn't want to go back through the leveling grind/ToA on a classic server where the ranged buffs where implemented.

    Thanks for considering this question.

  • I turned down my Beta invite - why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by neye_eve ( 212185 ) * on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @03:49PM (#16474965)
    When i found out that i was getting a beta invite a few months ago, I was pretty excited until i found out this was the fantasy version as opposed to 40K. With the extreme glut of fantasy-based mmo's currently in existence, what prompted you to decide "we have a loyal 40K fanbase, and there are not many sci-fi based mmos, thus we will follow the conventional wisdom and create yet another fantasy-based game."?

    I have no issue with you making whatever game you want to make, and think you can make money on. However, I really am curious as to what influenced your decision to go with fantasy over 40k.
  • I couldn't even get to the PvP based end game in DAoC because the grinding required to get there was so incredibly boring. Even more so than all the other boring treadmill MMOGs. I have wasted more than enough time mindlessly killing rats for no reason, are you going to let us skip the crap and get straight to the game?
  • 1) The Keeper of Secrets peels the flesh from your body, rapes you skinless and screaming, and then devowers your soul. You are dead, start a new character.

    Will my character be able to die?

    2) One of the things that turns me off to mmorp games is they just go on and on without any point. If you screw up you just respawn. If you defeat someone else they just respawn. Winning is reduced to a test of who can stand being bored the most and the only way to lose is to have any other interests that prevent you from

  • Necromunda Version? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by legoburner ( 702695 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2006 @06:06PM (#16476867) Homepage Journal
    Simple question, will we ever see a Necromunda MMORPG? Warhammer is fun but only half as popular as 40k, and the market for warhammer online seems fairly saturated already. Necromunda seems to lend itself almost perfectly to the MMORPG style. I heard that Warhammer 40k was rejected by GW as an option for you as it was being worked on by another company (and was cancelled by them well into your development process). Are there any plans to pick up the pieces? (Necromunda!! :))

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